Hung Cao, a former Republican candidate for Congress in Virginia and an ex-Navy special officer, will challenge the state’s incumbent Democrat Sen. Tim Kaine in 2024, Cao announced on Tuesday.
Cao, a retired Navy captain who served as a special operations officer for over two decades, previously ran against incumbent Democrat Jennifer Weston in 2022 but lost by 13 points in a district that President Joe Biden won by almost 20 points in 2020.
"After 25 years defending our nation around the world, I have seen our country take a dark turn. Believe me when I tell you: If America fails, there's nowhere else to go. That's why I'm not done fighting for us. I have an obligation to fight back against those who want to control our lives and disrupt our families. Virginia deserves real fighters — not politicians, not bureaucrats, not keyboard warriors. That's why I'm running to be your United States senator," Cao said in a statement, as reported by The Daily Caller.
Cao also released a digital ad in which he criticized Biden over his family's alleged business practices.
"The Biden family? That's how it works in a dictatorship. The rules don't apply to the rulers," Cao says in the video. "We are losing our country. You know it, but you also know you can't say it."
Cao told local ABC affiliate 7News in an interview: "I came to this country as a refugee [from Vietnam] in 1975. I went to Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. I was in the inaugural class to graduate from there. I went to the United States Naval Academy. I have paid back this country with everything I had, with 25 years of service in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Somalia. And so I feel that I understand the plight of immigrants. I also understand what it means to defend this country and put your life on the line for this country. And I'm also now in business, and so I understand what American businesses need."
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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